Kew PALACE Plan a Spring Day out at One of London’S Lesser-Known Royal Residences, 120 Years After It First Opened to the Public, Says Adrienne Wyper
SLUG HERE Left to right: The Queen’s Boudoir, lined with Dutch paintings; detail of the rug in the King’s Dining Room; the Clerk of the Kitchen’s Office Kew PALACE Plan a spring day out at one of London’s lesser-known royal residences, 120 years after it first opened to the public, says Adrienne Wyper t may be a little less than palatial, but this charm- It’s easy to envisage royal life here: the bedrooms are ing red-brick edifice in the beautiful grounds of restored to how they looked when they were occupied by Kew Gardens offers a fascinating insight into the daughters of King George III and Queen Charlotte. The lives of its former anointed inhabitants. Queen suffered from dropsy (swollen tissues due to excess Built on the banks of the Thames in 1631 for a fluid) and found it uncomfortable to lie down. Among Iwealthy silk merchant, the double-fronted ‘Dutch House’ the period furniture on display is the black horsehair was leased by Queen Caroline, wife of King George II, in chair she used for resting, in which she died in 1818. the 1720s. It was used as an intimate retreat, where the Below stairs, the enormous kitchens are preserved just royal family could escape from public life. In 1781 King as they were when Queen Charlotte died, with the lengthy George III bought the freehold, and it then became a original elm table, scarred by food preparation, as well refuge for him during his periods of ill health, as charted as the copper boilers and charcoal stoves.
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